Digital video can be transmitted from a source, such as a computer or Set Top Box (STB), to a display, such as a video monitor or entertainment display and associated audio and control functions, using one of two protocols known as Digital Visual Interface (DVI) and High Definition Multi-media Interface (HDMI). Having been developed primarily for computers, DVI, and having been developed primarily for digital displays, HDMI are intended for wired transmission.
As recognized herein, to save table space and to increase people's mobility and viewing lines in the room, it may be desirable to view the multimedia on a display using a minimum of wiring. For instance, it may be desirable to mount a projector on the ceiling or to mount a plasma display or liquid crystal high definition (HD) television display on a wall, out of the way and capable of receiving multimedia data for display without the need for wires, since as understood herein among other things, while power lines exist in ceilings and walls, data transmission lines often do not exist in ceilings or walls.
The present invention further understands, however, that not just any wireless transmission system will do. Specifically, if a wireless link such as IEEE 802.11(b, g or a) is used that has a bandwidth which is insufficient to carry uncompressed multimedia such as uncompressed high definition (HD) video, compressed multimedia video (standard definition or high definition) would have to be transmitted, requiring a relatively expensive compression module at the source and decompression module at the display. Some links such as IEEE 802.11(a) do have a bandwidth high enough to carry compressed HD video but not uncompressed SD or HD video. Also, in the case of 802.11(a) copyright protection may be implicated because the link is sufficiently long range (extending beyond the room in which it originates) that it can be detected beyond the immediate location of the transmitting device. With this in mind, the present invention recognizes the need for a very short range, preferably directional, high bandwidth wireless link that is particularly suited for the short range wireless communication of uncompressed multimedia, particularly the rather voluminous genre of multimedia known as HD video.
In any case, as mentioned above for the DVI standard, wireless transmission is not envisioned. The present invention recognizes that to effect wireless short-range transmission of DVI data, a DVI receiver chip can receive 1 clock line and 3-data physical signaling streams representing DVI clock, data and control functions and demultiplex it to baseband video of 24 bits video and 7-control lines. The baseband video can be fed into a processor that re-multiplexes the signals and produces both “in-phase”, I and “quadrature”, Q signals that can be up converted (modulated) by a radio and wirelessly transmitted to a DVI transmitter chip. The DVI transmitter chip can perform the inverse of the above process to produce a clock and 3-data physical signaling stream that is sent to drive a display.
As critically recognized herein, the above-discussed system, while useful, can be further simplified. Accordingly, the solution herein is provided.